Formation of national strategy to counter ‘mental health issues’ need of hour: MinisterFederal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Abdul Qadir Patel on Friday said that a comprehensive national strategy on mental health issues is a need of the hour, there-fore, a seminar will be organized after this Eid-ul-Fitr to take inputs from the experts about the future course of action on mental health issues.
He was addressing the launching ceremony of ‘PM Strategic Reforms Initiative for Citizens Mental Wellbeing’ Web-based application Humraz Mental Health App and Integrated Helpline 1166 on World Health Day -2023, at a hotel here.Speaking about Hamraz Mental Health App and Integrated Helpline 1166, the federal health minister termed it as a good step in the right direction and said an awareness campaign should also be launched for its promotion and its advertisements should go on-air on television channels during talk shows.
Abdul Qadir Patel said that we started work on men-tal health issues, particularly, keeping in view the sufferings of the patients and our initiative would appear as the first brick of the building.He said that we would have to keep working on this cause of facilitating mentally ill people as these issues were ignored in the past, he observed. It is also a hard task to find medicines for the patient with mental illness in Pakistan, it is indeed very painful, he added.
The minister said that we want to do something for mental health issues to proceed further towards a better future of our coming generations.Speaking about the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Pakistan, the minister said that around 350,000 to 400,000 children are suffering from ASD in Pakistan. It is pertinent to mention that we do not even have an Urdu word for Autism, he added.
He said that work is also being done on Autism in Sindh and we have a dedicated unit on it in the DOW Institute of Health Science in Karachi.He said that we have excellent coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and both these organizations always helped Pakistan in all testing situations, he added.He said that the events on the health issues are regu-larly organized, but more important is creation of awareness among the masses about the available health services and issues.
WHO representative in Pakistan, Dr Palitha Mahi-pala, Director Health Programmes, Ministry of Na-tional Health Services, Regulations and Coordina-tion, Dr. Baseer Khan Achakzai, Dr. Rizwan Taj and other notables were also present on the occa-sion. It is worth mentioning here that “Hamraz Mental Health App and Integrated Helpline 1166” is a facil-ity in the shape of a 24-hour mental health applica-tion and a mental health website, a call-free assis-tance for everyone, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Health to help the citizens about improving their mental health.
The application is known as Humraaz, will allow users to make appointments with the best psychia-trist and psychologist. With the consultation of these experts, people will be able to share their mental issues stress and anxi-ety. Turn it on, and the consultants will give the best suggestions for the improvement of the mental health of people. These suggestions will be related to the reduction of all the psychiatric and psycho-logical issues faced by the people. It is also provid-ing online facility or contact with experts on WhatsApp, all the information of people will be confidentialAll people having psychological issues or poor men-tal health can contact the experts by calling the inte-grated helpline number 1166.
